Cal Leandros series
The Cal Leandros series is written by Rob Thurman. Genre and Subgenres Urban Fantasy / Noir UF Brief Series Description or Overview Caliban (Cal) and Niko (Nik) Leandros are tough, streetwise half brothers. Although Niko is fully human, Cal is half Auphe—a violent and cannibalistic elf-related supernatural race. Cal has spent his life constantly trying to prove to others—and to himself—that he isn’t the monster that his name and his heritage imply. The series follows the brothers as they repeatedly escape from the Auphe and strike out on their own as detectives and bodyguards (and often killers) serving the supernatural community of New York City. ~ from Fang-tastic Fiction Lead's Species * Half-Auphe, Para-PI Primary Supe * Auphe What Sets it Apart * Unique lead species * Awe-inspiring brotherly bond Narrative Type and Narrators * First person narrative told by Cal Leandros, protagonist. Books in Series Cal and Niko Leandros series: # Nightlife (2006) # Moonshine (2007) # Madhouse (2008) # Deathwish (2009) # Roadkill (2010) # Blackout (2011) # Doubletake (2012) # Slashback (Mar 2013) # Downfall (Aug, 2014) # Nevermore (Dec 1, 2015) # Untitled () Shorts, Anthologies, Collections and Guides * 7.5. "Milk and Cookies" in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (2008) ~ anthology and eBook short * "First Ball... Last Call" in Courts of the Fey (2011) Anthology, editors: Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davis * Silver and Salt (2014) four shorts collection by Rob Thurman — "Milk and Cookies;, "First Ball...Last Call", "A Grain of Salt", "Talking Trash" Other Series and Writings * Trickster series * The Korsak Brothers series (Science Fiction) ~ Goodreads * All Seeing Eye (2012) ~ Novel Themes * Bonds of brotherhood * Family relationships :: nature vs. nurture * The changes in character that come with maturity and experience * Friendship * Reincarnation * Loyalty * Acceptance World Building Setting New York City Places: * Tumulus: different dimension inhabited by Auphe * Moonshine: gambling club for non-humans * Ninth Circle: Bar owned by the Peri Ishiah. Caterers to the non-human crowd. * Buell Hall: Empty hall on Columbia University campus. * New London, Connecticut: Wher Cal, Niko and their mother were living 12 years ago. * The Ninth Circle: Bar owned by Ishiah and where Cal works. * Tumulus: An awful place that is home to the Auphe. * SAS tunnels: Second Avenue Subway tunnels. Unfinished construction project where they look for Sawney Beane. * Canton * Wyoming * Utah * Omaha, Nebraska * Seattle, Washington Supernatural Elements ✥ Paien, Auphe, shape-changers, elf race, vampires, psychics, portals, werewolves, trickster, troll, boggle, Grendel monsters, time travel, werewolf Mafia, supe-mob, doppelgänger, Reincarnation, automaton, manananggals, Cyclops, , , , , Glossary: * The Auphe: Elves. Violent creatures from the world of Tumulus. The first killers to walk the face of the earth. They are nature’s most efficient creature and its very worst mistake. Now virtually extinct, the Auphe have had many designs to return to their former domination. * Grendels: Niko's word for the Auphe before he knew what they were called. He borrowed the name from the epic poem, Beowulf, that he read when he was a youth--because they were monsters. * Paien: Supernaturals' name for their kind—live amongst humans, but humans are generally unaware of their existence * Gate (Gating): An ability possessed by the Auphe that allows them to travel between their world and this one as well as anywhere they have seen within this world (and presumably their own). * Darkling: A male banshee who can hide and travel through mirrors, able to possess human beings and access memories. Has an affinity for music. *Peri: Supernatural creatures with wings that they can make appear and disappear. Sometimes mistaken for angels. * Vyodanoi: Water creatures originating in Russia and resembling a six or seven foot leech in humanoid form, extremely fast; loves company and vodka although they may drink one and eat the other. * Pyriel: An angel responsible for examining the souls for purity in Heaven. Also the only angel trusted with the power to raise the dead. * Puck: Tricksters who spend their time conning, exaggerating, lying, stealing, thieving, and fornicating — online def: clever, mischievous elf or sprite that personifies the trickster or the wise knave * Boggles: Live in a lake in Central Park—nine-foot-tall mud-encrusted, humanoid lizard, about five hundred pounds, had pumpkin orange eyes full of fury..." (Blackout, pp. 100) * Rom: Romani people are often referred to as "gypsies". Cal and Niko come from a Romani tribe. * Janus: The name of the automaton that attacked Cal * Wahanket: Mummy—not necessarily a human mummy, lives in the Metropolitan Museum sub-basements; steady source of information for Robin Goodfellow, and has a love for technology of all kinds; can give life to the dead, he can take life as well; With Cal, he is biding his time but growing impatient. * Manananggals: Winged, blood-suckers * Cyclops: Fiery-eyed Cyclops with liquid metal running through their veins; 'Groups & Organizations': * The Kin: The werewolf Mafia—Nothing illegal in the supernatural community in NYC happens without their permission * The Vigil: A group devoted to concealing the paranormal from humanity World ✥ New York City, a community brimming over with every kind of paranormal being that you have ever heard of—and some that you haven’t. In this world the supernaturals' name for their kind is paien. The paien live amongst humans, but humans are generally unaware of their existence—even though boggles live in a lake in Central Park and trolls hang out under the bridges. (Do you know what a boggle is? Keep reading for a description and picture.) The Auphe keep coming back for Cal in the first five books because he has the ability to gate—travel through space and time—into the past. They want him to gate back to a time when the human population was sparse so that they can kill all humans and have the world for themselves. They also want to use Cal to create a new race of Auphe-human monsters. The books play up the familial bond and the differences between the brothers. ~ from Fang-tastic Fiction ✥ Auphe: Cal is half Auphe—a violent and cannibalistic elf-related supernatural race. Here is a description of the Auphe from Downfall: They have “a thousand metal teeth in a hypodermic needle grin…They didn’t wear clothes at all. The only use for a horse they would have would be to eat it. They had roamed the world, an albino, scarlet-eyed, clawed naked animal that Mother Nature had for some reason gifted with a brain. A twisted, psychopathic brain, but with the talent of cunning and speech and plans for genocide all the same.” (p. 13) ~ Fang-tastic Fiction Protagonists ✥ Caliban "Cal" Leandros: The main character and Niko Leandros's half brother. Cal is half human and half Grendel, but all he wants is a normal life for his brother and himself. Lazy as hell but just as funny, Cal is a loyal brother and a trustworthy friend. ✥ Niko "Nik" Leandros: Cal's half brother (although you wouldn't know it by how close the two are). Niko is a full-blooded human, but his skills with the sword make one question that statement. He lives with the intention of keeping his younger brother safe no matter what and is wiser than his years. ✥ Cal has spent his life constantly trying to prove to others—and to himself—that he isn’t the monster that his name and his heritage imply. The series follows the brothers as they repeatedly escape from the Auphe and strike out on their own as detectives and bodyguards (and often killers) serving the supernatural community of New York City, a community brimming over with every kind of paranormal being that you have ever heard of—and some that you haven’t. In this world the supernaturals' name for their kind is paien. The paien live amongst humans, but humans are generally unaware of their existence—even though boggles live in a lake in Central Park and trolls hang out under the bridges. (Do you know what a boggle is? Keep reading for a description and picture.) Book Cover Blurbs ✤ BOOK ONE BLURB—Nightlife (2008) ': ''There are monsters among us. There always have been and there always will be. I’ve known that since I can remember, just like I’ve always known I was one ... Well, half of one, anyway. Welcome to New York City—a troll under the Brooklyn Bridge, a boggle in Central Park, and a beautiful vampire in a penthouse on the Upper East Side. Most humans are oblivious to the preternatural nightlife around them, but Cal Leandros is only half human. His father’s dark lineage is the stuff of nightmares–and his entire otherworldly elf race are after Cal. His half brother, Niko, gave up college to keep them on the run for four years, but now the Grendel monsters are back. And Cal is about to learn why they want him. He is the key to unleashing their hell on earth. The fate of the human world will be decided in the fight of Cal’s life. ~ Goodreads | Nightlife (#1) ✤ '''BOOK TWO BLURB—Moonshine (2007): After saving the world from his fiendish father's side of the family, Cal Leandros and his stalwart half-brother Niko have settled down with new digs and a new gig—bodyguard and detective work. And in New York City, where preternatural beings stalk the streets just like normal folk, business is good. Their latest case has them going undercover for the Kin-the werewolf Mafia. A low-level Kin boss thinks a rival is setting him up for a fall, and wants proof. The place to start is the back room of Moonshine-a gambling club for non-humans. Cal thinks it's a simple in-and-out job. But Cal is very, very wrong. Cal and Niko are being set up themselves-and the people behind it have a bite much worse than their bark. ~ Goodreads | Moonshine (#2) ✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—Madhouse (2008): Half-human Cal Leandros and his brother, Niko, aren't exactly prospering with their preternatural detective agency. Who could have guessed that business could dry up in New York City, where vampires, trolls, and other creepy crawlies are all over the place? But now there's a new arrival in the Big Apple. A malevolent evil with ancient powers is picking off humans like sheep, dead-set on making history with an orgy of blood and murder. And for Cal and Niko, this is one paycheck they're going to have to earn. ~ Goodreads | Madhouse (#3) ✤ BOOK FOUR BLURB—Deathwish (2009): In a nightmarish new york city, life is there for the taking… Half-human Cal Leandros and his brother Niko are hired by the vampire Seamus to find out who has been following him, until Seamus turns up dead (or un-undead). Worse still is the return of Cal's nightmarish family, the Auphe. The last time Cal and Niko faced them, they were almost wiped out. Now, the Auphe want revenge. But first, they?ll destroy everything Cal holds dear. ~ Goodreads | Deathwish (#4) ✤ BOOK FIVE BLURB—Roadkill (2010): It's time to lock, load, and hit the road… Once, while half-human Cal Leandros and his brother Niko were working on a case, an ancient gypsy queen gave them a good old-fashioned backstabbing. Now, just as their P.I. business hits a slow patch, the old crone shows up with a job. She wants them to find a stolen coffin that contains a blight that makes the Black Death seem like a fond memory. But the thief has already left town, so the Leandros brothers are going on the road. And if they're very, very lucky, there might even be a return trip. ~ Goodreads | Roadkill (#5) ✤ BOOK SIX BLURB—Blackout (2011): When half-human Cal Leandros wakes up on a beach littered with the slaughtered remains if a variety of hideous creatures, he's not that concerned. In fact, he can't remember anything-including who he is. And that's just the way his deadly enemies like it. ~ Goodreads | Blackout (#6) ✥ I let it go—all of it. Everything I’d been saving up all my life, building and growing inside me, too much to hold in one half-human body. It pushed and fought to be free with a force that turned me into a bomb with a timer vibrating on zero. I was free. — But so was everything I’d fought so hard not to be… — Brothers Cal and Niko Leandros know trouble when they see it, and then proceed to wipe the floor with it. But now it seems their whole world is falling to pieces. Cal’s nightmarish monster side is growing ever stronger, changing Cal physically as well as mentally. Which is exactly what Grimm—Cal’s savage doppelgänger—wants. And when a covert supernatural organization decides that it’s time to put Cal down before he threatens pretty much everything else in existence, the brothers find themselves in a fight they actually might lose. But the dark temptations Cal has denied all his life may prove to be exactly what can save them. Even if he must fall forever ✤ BOOK SEVEN BLURB—Doubletake (2012): Half-human/half-monster Cal Leandros knows that family is a pain. But now that pain belongs to his half-brother, Niko. Niko's shady father is in town, and he needs a big favor. Even worse is the reunion being held by the devious Puck race-including the Leandros' friend, Robin- featuring a lottery that no Puck wants to win. As Cal tries to keep both Niko and Robin from paying the ultimate price for their kin, a horrific reminder from Cal's own past arrives to remind him that blood is thicker than water-and that's why it's so much more fun to spill. ~ Goodreads | Doubletake (#7) ✤ BOOK EIGHT BLURB—Slashback (2013): I stopped and let them circle me, first because it was intriguing and, second, because, honestly, what could they do? Only knives, but all armed, and that made them even more interesting. Interesting. Fun. Playtime . . . Taking on bloodthirsty supernatural monsters is how Caliban and Niko Leandros make a living. But years ago—before they became a force to be reckoned with—the brothers were almost victims of a very human serial killer. Almost. Unfortunately for them, that particular depraved killer was working as apprentice to a creature far more malevolent—the legendary Spring-heeled Jack. He’s just hit town. He hasn’t forgotten what the Leandros brothers did to his murderous protégé. He hasn’t forgotten what they owe him. And now they are going to pay… and pay… and pay. ~ Goodreads | Slashback (#8) ✤ BOOK NINE BLURB—Downfall (Aug 5, 2014): I let it go—all of it. Everything I’d been saving up all my life, building and growing inside me, too much to hold in one half-human body. It pushed and fought to be free with a force that turned me into a bomb with a timer vibrating on zero. I was free. But so was everything I’d fought so hard not to be… Brothers Cal and Niko Leandros know trouble when they see it—and then proceed to wipe the floor with it. But now it seems their whole world is falling to pieces. Cal’s nightmarish monster side is growing ever stronger, changing Cal physically as well as mentally. Which is exactly what Grimm—Cal’s savage doppelgänger—wants. And when a covert supernatural organization decides that it’s time to put Cal down before he threatens pretty much everything else in existence, the brothers find themselves in a fight they actually might lose. But the dark temptations Cal has denied all his life may prove to be exactly what can save them. Even if he must fall forever. ~ Goodreads | Downfall (#9) ✤ BOOK TEN—Nevermore (Dec 1, 2015): People die. Everyone knows that. I knew it intimately as everyone in my life died thanks to my one seemingly harmless mistake. I'd brought down Heaven, lifted up Hell, and set the world on fire, all due to one slip of the memory. — I forgot the pizzas... Caliban is a dead man. The Vigil, a group devoted to concealing the paranormal from humanity, has decided Cal has stepped out of the shadows once too often, and death is the only sentence. They plan to send a supernatural assassin into the past to take down the younger, less lethal Cal. But things change when The Vigil makes one last attempt on Caliban's life in the present—and end up destroying everyone and everything he cares about. Now, Cal has to save himself, warn those closest to him, and kill every Vigil bastard who stole his world. But if he fails, he and everyone in his life will be history ~ Goodreads | Nevermore (Cal Leandros, #10) ✤ BOOK ELEVEN—Untitled (Expected 2016): ~ Goodreads | Cal Leandros #11 by Rob Thurman ✤ BOOK TWELVE—: Category:Series